Love Makes a Way, the group of Christians best known for holding combined sit-ins and prayer meetings in Federal Government Ministers and MP’s offices, is finding a place to stay for Manus Island’s detainees.
The PNG Supreme Court has declared the detention centre on Manus Island illegal and the PNG PM Peter O’Neill has announced the centre will close.

Love Makes a Way’s #RoomAtMyPlace campaign is collecting offers from people who will offer the detainees a room. The group sees the new campaign as a further example of their commitment to non-violent direct action. Over the past two years, more than 170 church leaders have been arrested in prayerful sit-ins that called for the release of children from immigration detention centres.

Through a specially-constructed website www.roomatmyplace.org basic details are being collected from people willing to offer space in their homes. The aim is collect offers of 850 beds – enough to accommodate all of the men currently in the Manus Island Processing Centre. The names will be presented to Immigration Minister Peter Dutton and Shadow Immigration Minister Richard Marles. They will be invited to accept the offers of accommodation, and the full details will be provided to a suitable resettlement agency.

So far offers of accommodation have been received from every state, from both city and country area.

“Last update we had (on Sunday) we had  240 offers,” Love Makes a Way’s Chris Bedding told Eternity.  “So far we’ve only used social media. We hope using  conventional media will get us to our 850 bed target.”